Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Joel Salomon, on air from January 5th/21
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to help others?
To help hundreds or thousands of people (or more) become financially free?
To educate them on investments and on the insurance and investment industries?
To help them manifest their dreams and desires?
This is being of service to others.
This is indeed a dream of mine!
With another year of managing my hedge fund coming to a close and the business still not profitable (i.e., we are not able to pay employees market salaries while also funding all the infrastructure costs of a hedge fund from legal to auditing to fund administration, etc.), I decided to go to a course entitled “Reignite.”
It sounded like just what I needed to get SaLaurMor to the next level in 2016.
All I had to do was get down to Orlando (frequent flyer miles helped there) and then the course was free except for just a $99 per night fee for the resort.
The description for the weekend was very enticing as well: “Learn how to re-ignite your finances, business, career and relationships. The weekend delivers change that lasts. We provide the real-life tools customized for your personal roadmap to getting results – so that you can live the life you choose.”
I decided to sign up for the session that started on December 18 and ran through December 20. I was positive it was going to get me ready for a 2016 that would be unparalleled.
There were people from all over Florida, but very few from outside the state. It was the last few days before Christmas and if you hadn’t completed your shopping these were the days that most do it. So, I was surprised to find almost 200 people in our “classroom” on Friday, December 18th.
Day two and Day three were very powerful with team building exercises. The one that really caused my “A-ha” moment was the one which was called “Obstacles are Illusions.”
We were each given a wooden board about two and a half inches thick; eight inches long and five inches wide. Imagine everyone’s horror as we had to fill out “permission slips.”
Robert spent at least forty-five minutes explaining how the holder was to hold the board with his hands covered with protective gloves and the “breaker” was to shift his weight forward but only use his palm outstretched. We practiced setting up and shifting our weight and ending up beyond where the holder was holding the piece of wood. Wow, this was really scary. Is it possible to break your wrist? Remember, “hesitation = pain?”
We had to literally break it in half with our hand.
On one side, we wrote our biggest obstacle and on the other side we wrote our goal.
I wrote down my biggest obstacle was raising enough money for SaLaurMor Capital to be wildly profitable.
On the other side, I wrote my goal: “Making everyone in this room financially free.”
Wow!
Writing that and saying that made me feel so good. I was being of service to others.
What did Robert say success was? “Success is not a thing; it is more a feeling. You feel complete and you feel successful in your relationship or business.”
I also realized that my objective and my goal were non-sequiturs. The objective of raising enough money for SaLaurMor Capital had nothing to do with “making everyone in the room financially free.”
At this course and a few others I have been to over the years, I have found that when the speaker starts talking about stocks and stock options, especially, they explain it in such a way as to make it seem that you can make a lot of money in options but the risk is very limited or not at all. I’ve heard statements such as these:
“Options have unlimited upside.”
“You can trade them anywhere.”
“You have very little up-front or start-up costs.”
“It requires very little time.”
“Options are where the rich make their money.”
While, many of these statements are true, it is also true that options do have significant risks and if you buy an option you can lose your whole investment and if you sell an option you can lose a lot more than your whole premium. And I’m not sure how many of the rich have used stock options alone to make their money.
So, the other thing that happened at that course that I went to in December 2015 was that other attendees started to ask me questions about stocks and stock options after our guest speaker on options had finished his introductory tutorial.
I realized that recommendations to invest in securities without knowing key information about the attendees including their risk tolerance, net worth, earnings, cash flow, and knowledge was inappropriate. And I felt that this part of the presentation was not authentic and potentially misleading.
Many attendees asked me if stock options were essentially riskless (see JoelSalomon.com for a discussion on stock options for my obvious answer). Some felt that they could make multiples of their investment—using leverage. That is certainly true; however, no one discussed the risk of losing their whole investment, which is also possible.
What I realized from all these discussions was that education was essential and I could do a really good job of helping others and being of service to them based on my long history in the insurance and investment industry.
Knowing the limited amount of information that most individuals had on investments and the lack of information many have about their own situation, the possibility to help others seemed to be quite large to me. I felt an obligation to help the people in the course and realized there must be many other courses like these that could be hugely beneficial and educational to potential investors, and to help people achieve financial freedom.
I came home from the course and realized that my mission in life was not investing institutional and high-net worth individuals’ money.
I could have continued on investing this money, but it didn’t feel right. I could have been a super successful hedge fund manager. But what did I do?
I didn’t sleep the night I came home from the course as the wooden board—actually one half of the wooden board—stared at me all night: “Make everyone in this room financially free.”
I went into my office that Monday morning and informed my investors I was planning on shutting down my hedge fund. This was a major decision that is hard to make a reader understand. A dream that I thought was “right” for twenty years was really not my true purpose in life. I know that may sound a bit cliché, but it is true.
This huge decision to shut down my company came quickly. It was my “higher self” telling me “truth.” I knew that trusting this decision was the right thing to do. Remember this was the company I longed to start for years. It was the company I had so much difficulty finding investors for in 2012 and 2013. Remember I had two employees I was paying salaries and benefits. Two people who relied on my good judgment. I had two daughters that relied on my cash flow generation for their child support. And of course, I had all the service providers who had supported me unconditionally (though some may say they were more than fairly compensated for their efforts) for almost four years. Was I throwing this all away based on a “whim?”
No!
I began with a simple question:
Is investing my true purpose on earth?
Am I supposed to be helping ultra-high-net worth individuals and companies become super-wealthy or am I supposed to be of service to those in need?
Am I supposed to help those who can really gain by my knowledge and experience?
Am I supposed to help those who can gain not only from my financial acumen but also from my knowledge that everything depends on your thoughts and if you can “act as if,” you can indeed achieve what you ask for?
When I informed my investors that I was going to return their money because I wanted to align my mission with my career, I did not receive significant push back. This indicated to me that I was on the right track…
Joel Salomon is a Finance and Mindful Money Expert and Master Prosperity Coach who helps others overcome obstacles standing in the way of their financial freedom. He’s an award-winning speaker, workshop facilitator and frequent television and podcast guest who has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, U.S. News and World Report, and interviewed in Forbes and on Bloomberg Radio.
As manager of a $700 million portfolio, the creator of his own successful hedge fund and the author of two best-selling books: The 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use and Mindful Money Management, Joel is an expert in the field of finance and the mindset of money. Just as he teaches in his books and seminars, the true foundation of wealth and financial freedom is a mindset of abundance, self-worth, gratitude, love and service.
Becoming a Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer and Trailblazer in 2016, ignited a dream in Joel’s heart to help over 100,000 people become financially free so they too, could live the life of their dreams. He’s well on his way to making that dream a reality!
My gift will be a free book to a random person who texts to the # 66866, “9Moneyrules” in the text box. All listeners will get a free copy of “5 Megatrends Guaranteed to SHAPE Your Future.”
SPECIAL OFF ON JANUARY 2021 COURSE
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